Once Upon A Thunderstorm
by OnceUponAMadameMayor
Summary: Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Regina. Once upon a time, Regina became best friends with a little girl named Emma. Once upon a time, they grew up and faced the world together. And once upon a time, life got in the way. AU all the way. Swan Queen eventually. Fairy Queen. Swan Thief. Stable Queen.
1. First Day Of Kindergarten

_So here's the fic that's been niggling at me for a few days now. It started off as a comic (which I might post on Tumblr, depending on the interest) and now I'm transitioning it to fanfiction! This is very AU. No curse or magic, just lovely lovely Emma and Regina, with cameos from everyone else. I hope y'all enjoy!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time, as depressing as that is._

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"Regina," the auburn haired woman sighed, "You are six years old. You aren't a little girl anymore. You're a big girl. Big girls go to school."

Regina stomped her foot on the burgundy carpet of her mother's study, her black curls bouncing indignantly.

"I don't wanna go to school!" she protested, crossing her chubby arms across her chest. Regina's mother looked over the top of her wire rimmed glasses, past the stack of paperwork on her otherwise uncannily organized desk, right into her daughter's large dark eyes. Regina instantly quailed under her mother's icy cold, unfaltering gaze.

"You are a big girl now. Big girls speak properly and go to school," Regina's mother said after a long, tension filled pause, looking back down at her papers, her tone dismissive. "You are not going to be an exception to that rule."

Regina ignored the unfamiliar word, and stuck out her lower lip.

"But Mommy - "

The woman looked up again, her already thin lips set in a fine line.

"Don't argue with me, Regina. It's final. You _will _go to school if I have to drag you there by your hair."

Regina's small fingers leapt up to twist protectively around one of her gleaming curls. Her eyes filled with tears. She took a small step back.

"By my hair?" she asked tentatively. "But what if my hair falls out?"

Her mother sighed and took off her glasses, setting them on top of a file and rubbing her temples exasperatedly.

"Regina. If you comply, you won't have to worry about your hair falling out. Now, go bother someone else with your imagination. I have work to do."

~O~

"Mommy, please, don't make me - MOMMY! Please! I don't wanna go in there! I wanna stay with you and Daddy!"

Mrs. Cora Mills looked down at her daughter, who clutched her hand like a lifeline, her tiny nails digging into Cora's skin. Tears pooled in the girl's overlarge eyes, and her expression was that of the most desperate soul on Earth; as if Cora held in her hands the elixir of life, and Regina was dying.

"Stop it, Regina, you're making a scene! You WILL go in there and I won't hear one more word out of you about it! I'm doing this for your own good! Now for the love of God, let go of me and act like a proper young lady!" the mother said harshly. Regina released her like she had been burned, shaking like a leaf and dragging her feet as Cora steered her with a firm grip on her shoulder into the second classroom to the right.

Regina's eyes bugged out. In her surprise, she forgot to be angry, and distressed. The room was large, and painted a vibrant sky blue. Bright green carpeting covered the floor like grass, and little yellow tables with cherry red stools were scattered all over the class. Toys were everywhere; building blocks stacked precariously halfway to the ceiling, toy guns and swords tossed to the ground when their owners had been 'killed', dolls with fantastical, sparkly outfits that Regina could only have seen in her dizziest daydreams before this moment. But what stunned the six year old the most was the other children.

Shouting, laughing, crying, screaming - everything was happening at once. There seemed to be a new face every time Regina blinked, another voice piercing the air, another flash of chubby arms and silly expressions. Regina had never seen so many children in her life. There, over there was a girl with - was that bright red streaks in her hair?! What sort of girl had red streaks? This confused Regina - surely she couldn't have been born like that. And over there! A boy with a plastic stethoscope - Regina was very proud of knowing what this was, that was the cool part of having a doctor for a mother - pretending to check someone's heartbeat! Regina thought that only adults were allowed to touch the stethoscopes and mallets and needles!

Cora observed her starstruck, gaping daughter with a trace of a smug smile. The girl was completely stunned, entranced by the chaotic environment. The mother chose this moment to insert herself into the situation as dutiful mother. Her cold gaze scanned the room, her lip curling slightly as children intercepted her vision - the only good child was Regina, and even she needed a lot of work -. Finally Cora found who she was looking for. Striding over purposefully and pulling Regina along with her by the shoulder, she approached the petite, black haired pixie of a woman with a bright pink cardigan and a flower in her short hair, who was sitting in one of the tiny red stools helping a little girl adjust the straps of her sparkly pink fairy wings.

"Good day, I am Cora Mills," the auburn haired woman announced. The pixie faced woman looked up with a sweet smile.

"Hello, I'm Mary Margaret Blanchard! I'm the -"

"Teacher, yes, I know," Cora interrupted smoothly. "I specifically arranged for my daughter to be in your class. You come very highly recommended, Miss Blanchard."

The teacher smiled cheerfully. Regina looked up at her with a mixture of fear and curiosity, trying halfheartedly to hide behind her mother. Cora, with her iron grip, did not allow her daughter to move one inch. Mary Margaret patted the little girl on the shoulder gently.

"Go on, Nova, you're all fixed up!"

"Thanks, Miss Blanchard," the little girl whispered, and then skipped off to where she and two other girls with different colored wings began to spin around with plastic wands in their hands. Regina's eyes followed her until a pinching sensation in her shoulder, courtesy of her mother, caused her to face frontwards again. Cora, judging from the flaring of her nostrils and the very fine line that was her lips, did not appreciate being second to a little girl with pink fairy wings. Mary Margaret appeared oblivious to this, and Regina thought that this was absolutely amazing. Everyone feared Cora Mills, the dragon-lady (Regina had heard Daddy call her mother this once) doctor who was known for her passive aggressive (Regina had learned that term from listening to her mother's phone messages; she wasn't quite sure what it meant but it sounded smart and like it fit) ability to win any argument and get what she wanted, doing whatever it took to get it.

"Is this your daughter, Mrs. Mills?" Mary Margaret asked, indicating to Regina. Cora nodded stiffly.

"Yes. This is Regina. Regina, say hello to Miss Blanchard," she ordered. Regina looked into her new teacher's eyes with a sense of awe.

"Hi, Miss Blanchard," she chorused dutifully.

"Is this her first time in a public school system?" Mary Margaret inquired, her tone mild. Cora nodded once more.

"Yes. Is this a problem, Miss Blanchard?" Cora, on the other hand, adapted a cold, hard tone that should have sent the young teacher heading for the hills. Instead, Mary Margaret shook her head no, leaned forward and knelt in front of Regina.

"Hi, Regina, welcome to kindergarten!" the woman said lightly. "I'm very glad to have you here in my class. It may seem a little scary now, but by the end of the day, you'll have made new friends and school will seem like the best place in the world, I promise!"

The little girl, a bit wary of the teacher's sudden proximity, had perked up a bit at the prospect of 'friends', a foreign concept to the girl who had up until then been educated in all things academic by a private tutor - Cora did NOT want her child associating with a bunch of messy toddlers. At least in kindergarten, kids weren't as messy - at least, that's what Cora liked to tell herself so she could justify enrolling Regina.

"You promise? I'm going to make friends?" Regina asked, her voice wavering on the last word. Mary Margaret smiled encouragingly.

"I promise. Do you want to meet someone very special to me?"

Cora chose this moment to take her leave, just as Regina nodded in confirmation. Releasing her hold on Regina' shoulder, she carefully made her way back towards the door. Regina pivoted on her heel, her eyes widening in resurfacing distress.

"No! Mommy, come back, please! Don't leave me!"

Cora, of course, ignored Regina, and vanished through the doorway.

Someone tapped her on the shoulder, and Regina turned back around, her eyes filled with fresh tears, completely prepared to demand in her best 'Mommy' voice that Miss Blanchard retrieve her mother right this moment. But it wasn't Miss Blanchard that faced her when her eyes focused. Instead, it was a girl with messy blonde curls tied back in a ponytail, dressed in a big shirt and baggy shorts, her hands clutching what appeared to be a blue plastic water gun. The girl's expression was a mixture of confusion, curiosity, and irritation at being pulled out of whatever game she had just been playing.

"This is my daughter, Emma. Say hi, Emma."

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_Well, I hope you guys liked it! Tell me what you think! Questions? Comments? Concerns? Suggestions? Reviews make pixie dust, which makes my writing fly! _


	2. Red Streaks and Metal Poles

_I'm thrilled at the reviews/follows/favorites that I've already gotten for this. I love you guys. I really love you all. I don't know what other people consider a lot of support, but I consider the many follows/favorites/alerts a lot, especially for one chapter. Mwah mwah!_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time. I may as well own Swan Queen though, because judging from spoilers and Lana letting 'him' pronouns slip, it's not going to happen for a while yet. I don't own Swan Queen either though, that would be like saying I owned a fairy tale because they're public domain.**

_This chapter is dedicated to my friend Kristen, and she'll know why by the end of the chapter! Love you girl!_

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"So you're the new kid, huh?" Emma said, her voice inquisitive. She tilted her head ever so slightly. Regina nodded. She could feel something strange happening inside of her - the nervous butterflies in her stomach calming, her shoulders straightening, her chin lifting a bit. She could feel herself stiffening, hardening, freezing in place.

Was this how it felt to talk to other people?

"Emma, show Regina around, introduce her to everyone, okay?" Mary Margaret asked, smiling down at the two little girls. Emma nodded with two shakes of her head, smiling slightly at Regina. Regina could see two missing teeth. She ran her tongue over her own teeth - would she ever be missing teeth? How would she eat properly without her teeth? Did Emma not brush her teeth?

"Okay, Mom," Emma agreed. Mary Margaret grinned again - it must just be Emma, then, Regina decided, because Mary Margaret's teeth were blindingly white and all intact - and walked away, over to a girl with a mess of white blonde curls.

Regina smiled at Emma in the way her mother did, that full smile that never quite reached her eyes, displaying her own full set of tiny pearly whites.

"So your name is Emma?" Regina asked. Emma nodded in confirmation.

"Yep, that's me, Emma Swan," Emma said, shoving the plastic pistol she still held into her shorts pocket. Regina wondered why Emma was wearing shorts - she was a little girl, and little girls were supposed to wear dresses.

"I'm Regina, Regina Mills," Regina announced, extending her hand to Emma in the way she had seen both her mother and her father do when they met new people. Emma looked at her strangely, and for one moment Regina wondered panickedly if she had done anything wrong. Wasn't this how people talked to each other? But after the moment had passed, Emma hesitantly took Regina's hand and they shook once. Regina noted with slight disgust that Emma's hand was warm and sweaty. If she had been able to read Emma's mind, she would have seen Emma thinking precisely the same thing. Of course, the blonde girl did not make so much of an attempt to contain her thoughts, her face contorting slightly. Regina wondered why.

However, Regina asked a different question.

"But I thought your momm- mother's last name was Blanchard. How is your last name Swan?" Regina inquired in her little girl falsetto. Emma shrugged.

"My mom's last name is Blanchard, my dad's last name is Nolan. I didn't think it was fair to choose between them, 'cuz then the other would feel bad. So I made up my own last name!" the blonde explained, her hands moving animatedly and her ringlets bouncing with each motion. Regina found this explanation wildly appealing; she wished she could choose her own name.

"My mother and my daddy have the same last name," Regina said a little ruefully. "So I don't get to choose."

Emma chewed on one pink lip thoughtfully.

"How many moms and dads do you have, anyway?" Emma asked. Regina's little tadpole eyebrows drew together in confusion, and one hand fiddled with the pink ruffle on her dress. What sort of question was that?

"What do you mean? Can't you only have one mother and one daddy?" Regina retorted, her expression completely at a loss. Emma wrinkled her nose and shook her head, her gold curls swishing through the air with a rustling noise. Regina noted with envy that if she ever shook her hair as violently as Emma was now doing, it would look like it had been through a tornado.

"I have my mom, and then I have my dad and my stepmom," Emma announced, her voice ringing with childlike pride.

"You have a stepmother?" Regina's voice grew hushed. "Is she mean? Is she evil?"

Emma giggled and shook her head again dismissively.

"No, no, this isn't Snow White and the Seven Doorfs!" she said, as if it was obvious.

"Dwarves," Regina corrected. "It's said like 'dwar-ves'."

Emma narrowed her eyes slightly. Regina thought this made her look like a porcelain, golden haired snake.

"My stepmom's really nice to me, she always takes me out for ice cream when I get a good note home from school," Emma continued, her voice a modicum harder than before.

Regina didn't answer for a moment. A stepmom, Regina knew, was someone who married into being someone's mom or dad. Emma's stepmom wouldn't be related to her in any way, except through marriage. And stepmoms were supposed to be evil, at least they were judging from the stories Daddy told Regina every night before bed.

How was it, then, that Emma's stepmom was nicer to her than Regina's real mother was to her?

No, no, that wouldn't do. Regina shook her head slightly. She knew her mommy loved her, she just showed love in a different way. At least, that's what Daddy told her.

"So, Regina," Emma said slowly, testing out the name. It sounded strange when Emma said it, and Regina wasn't sure if she liked how it sounded or not, "Do you wanna meet my friend?"

Regina perked up slightly, a little smile curling up the corners of her own lips.

"Friend?"

~O~

"You're the new girl, Gina, right?" the girl with the red streaks asked, putting her hands on her hips. Regina wondered how it was that the girl was allowed out of the house wearing such sparkly, bright clothing. Her own mother would have punished her severely for even putting on one of the glitzy bead necklaces that the red streaked girl wore.

"Yes. My name is Regina," Regina enunciated clearly, not liking the sound of the nickname. Her mother always said that nicknames were common and not classy. Regina wasn't quite sure what 'classy' entailed, but she knew that her mother was classy, and she wanted to be just like her mother.

The red streaked girl grinned cheerily.

"My name's Ruby, like the jewel!" she chirped. Regina smiled the fake smile that was reserved for meeting people.

"Our names both start with 'R's," Ruby commented. Regina thought this was rather obvious, but decided against pointing this out.

"I suppose they do," Regina responded, smiling very slightly, fiddling with the ruffle on her dress. Ruby wrinkled her nose.

"Why do you talk so funny?" Ruby asked, her tone free of any maliciousness, just curiosity. Regina, however, became defensive.

"I don't talk funny," she retorted, frowning. Ruby shrugged.

"Okay, okay, Gina, I was just asking."

Regina's frown grew deeper.

"My name is REgina. Reh-geen-ah. NOT Gina."

Ruby pursed her lips, which were painted bright red with that stuff Regina had seen her mother use when she was going out to meet with people. Regina wondered how Ruby had gotten away with it - Regina wasn't allowed NEAR her mother's vanity or closet.

"Sooorr-yyy!" Ruby exclaimed. This drew the attention of a certain green eyed blonde who was in the middle of fake-stabbing a boy with a plastic hook. Emma dropped the sword onto the little boy, resulting in an indignant yelp, and ran over to Ruby's side.

"Is everything okay?" Emma asked, looking between Ruby and Regina. Regina glared at Ruby.

"She won't say my name right," Regina accused. Ruby's eyes widened in anger.

"She's so mean! I called her Gina, like a nickname!" Ruby defended. "And I asked her why she talked funny! I was just asking!"

Emma bit her lip.

"Regina, she was just asking," the blonde said finally. "It's not a big deal."

Regina scowled at the floor. Was nobody on her side?

Before anyone could say anything else, Mary Margaret's warm, friendly voice cut through the din.

"Recess, everyone! Outside!"

~O~

"Miss Blanchard?"

The teacher turned from where she had been watching Emma and Ruby and a bunch of boys parade up and down the grass of the playground, shouting cheerily about how they were going to slay a dragon and how Emma was a white knight, and how Ruby was her faithful companion Little Red Riding Hood.

She looked down at the petite little girl, looking quite confused and out of place on the bright playground in her pink dress and pearly hairband.

"Yes, Regina? Are you okay?" Mary Margaret asked, her eyebrows moving together. Regina nodded quickly.

"Yes, I'm fine. It's just..." Regina paused, deliberating. Was it weird if she asked? Was she doing something wrong? No, she needed to ask, because she needed to fit in and make good grades and be perfect. That's what her mother would be most interested in, if she was interested at all.

"Yes?"

"What do I do? What is 'recess'? I don't get it!" Regina burst, her cheeks burning with embarrassment. "What do I have to do to pass?"

Mary Margaret froze for a minute in confusion, and then resisted a laugh, because the little girl was obviously quite serious, and flustered.

"Recess isn't a class, honey," Mary Margaret explained, smiling kindly. "Recess is just for fun. Recess is when you run around outside and play!"

Regina's eyes grew to the size and shape of coins.

"Run around?" she repeated. "Play outside?" Surely this wasn't happening. Surely Miss Blanchard was lying, and would give her detailed instructions on what she was supposed to do instantly.

Mary Margaret was certainly confused by this reaction, her forehead wrinkling.

"You have played outside before, right?" Mary Margaret asked tentatively. Regina nodded emphatically.

"Yes, yes," she answered, her eyes brightening and a smile spreading slowly across her little face. "I didn't think that it would be allowed here, though."

Mary Margaret tilted her head to one side quizzically in the very same way that her daughter had - it was scary to Regina how exactly similar the mother and daughter looked just then, and this made her wonder if she ever looked or acted like her mother, or her mother ever looked or acted like her. Probably not, since her mother hated everything she did.

"Why wouldn't it be allowed here?" Mary Margaret asked. Regina shrugged.

"My mother told me that school was a place for learning, and not for having fun."

Mary Margaret's eyes widened, and she laughed lightly.

"School can be fun, if you let it be fun!" Mary Margaret defined. Regina smiled slightly.

"I want it to be fun," Regina agreed. Mary Margaret grinned at the girl's sudden enthusiasm.

"Why don't you go play then?" Mary Margaret suggested. "Emma's right over there, I'm sure she'd love to play with you!"

Regina looked over to Emma and her group, who had formed a circle around something and were muttering excitedly, judging from the turning of heads and the jostling she could see.

"Okay," Regina said, her voice coming out a bit shy. She berated herself slightly; what would mother say if she heard Regina being meek and shy?

"Okay," she repeated, this time more assertively and louder. She strode away, her black Mary Janes crunching down the long emerald grass. As she got closer to the group, she could make out a few snippets of what they were saying.

"...flagpost?"

"Spyglass...Pirate!"

"No," she heard Emma's piercing, determined voice declare. "It's my new sword! Hiyah!"

Regina broke through the ring of kids, now beyond excited to hear just what had drawn the interests of so many of her...what was that word her mother always used? Colleagues.

_A pole?_

Regina wrinkled her nose. A dirty, half covered in mud and grass, metal pole? Regina eyed the rod with slight disgust.

"What's so cool about a pole?" Regina asked, her tone coming out much more in tune with her internal disgust than it did with her false smile. All eyes turned to her with varied expressions of confusion, irritation, and plain old malevolence.

"What do you mean, 'what's so cool'," Emma asked, brandishing the pole in her left hand, and then tossing it to her right easily. "It can be used as anything! A sword to fight off dragons!" She tapped Regina's bare elbow with the far end, smearing mud onto the light olive skin. Regina exclaimed as the hard metal sent uncomfortable tingles up her arm.

"Hey!"

The other kids laughed.

"Or a lightsaber!" Emma made a whirring sound and then tapped Regina on both shoulders, successfully staining the pale pink shoulders of Regina's dress with more mud. Regina flinched again and gritted her teeth.

"Stop it! Put that down!" Regina protested, pushing the metal pole away. However, Emma didn't seem to realize that Regina was quite serious. The other children however, seemed more than aware of this fact, and laughed again.

"A wizard's staff!" she exclaimed, poking Regina directly in the chest. Regina stumbled backwards as she was pushed off balance, falling and skidding through the grass. She could feel the slightly damp grass stains already, the cool mud already staining the back of her dress, and she could feel the burning, angry tears in her eyes as she took in all of the other children in the group laughing at Regina's misfortune. Emma alone was frozen, her eyes widened in shock.

"I, uh...I didn't mean to -" Emma tried to say. Regina cut her off, angrily pushing herself to her feet and wiping a stray piece of grass off of her skirt.

"I hate you, Emma Swan!" she cried, her fists clenched and her voice shrieking. Emma flinched backwards at the mere force of the words coming from such a small, delicate looking girl.

"I'm sorry, Regina, it was an acci-"

"Save it!" Regina had heard her mother say that once to someone who wouldn't stop talking, and thought it fit nicely here. She turned on her heel, prepared to storm away, but then turned back. The other children had gone into hushed silence, watching, waiting to see what would happen next with the angry brunette and the apologetic blonde. Regina lunged forward and grabbed the metal pole out of Emma's hands, her right hand clutching as tightly as it could around the cold metal. She threw it to the ground with a muffled thump, and then turned away, marching somewhere where her newly declared enemy couldn't bother her.

Regina could feel the other children and Emma, with their eyes boring into her retreating, grass stained back, but she refused to turn and face them again. As her blurry, tear filled eyes searched for somewhere to hide, they snagged on a tall, sprawling tree, its leaves almond shaped and a calm green - not like the bright green of Emma's eyes, or the deep green of the stupid, staining grass. On the tree dangled a few reddening apples. No mean children with metal, dirt smeared poles neared it. It was perfect.

Regina plopped down against the base of the tree, and cried into her green stained hands.

_I hate her._

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_I hope you all enjoyed that! I had way too much fun writing it. And to think, Regina and Ruby weren't even planned to have a conversation..._

_Questions? Comments? Concerns? Let me know in a review! Reviews make pixie dust, and that's what makes my writing fly!_

**NOTE: Go vote on my poll on my profile! I'd love to hear what you all think! Until next time, dearies!**


	3. Apples, But Not Poison Ones

_Have I ever mentioned how much I love you guys? I appreciate all of the follows and favorites and reviews more than you guys will probably ever know. _

**Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon A Time. If I did, Regina would get her happy ending. With Emma.**

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Mary Margaret looked between the two girls, her eyes bright with anger and her nostrils flaring. Regina sniffled slightly, shifting in the cold metal chair as she clutched at the swollen red skin of her jaw. This chair was nothing like the bright red stools back in the classroom. In the chair next to her, she could see a flash of blonde out of the corner of her eye, twirling and twirling and twirling endlessly. Regina wanted to pull that stupid golden curl right out of Emma's hand, tear all of that pretty princess hair out, and then watch it burn.

"Would either of you care to explain exactly WHAT just happened?" the normally docile teacher demanded. Regina half expected to see fire come out of her nose, but then stopped this thought in its tracks, because Miss Blanchard as a dragon would be something Emma would come up with, and Regina refused to have anything in common with the other girl. Regina huffed and crossed her arms across her chest sullenly, kicking her legs and glaring at the scuffed black Mary Janes on her aching feet. Mary Margaret looked at the dark haired little girl for a moment more before transferring her burning gaze to Emma.

"Emma, care to do the honor?"

Emma huffed, letting the tight knot of gold unwind from where it had been wrapped around her finger.

"Me and Ruby were just cutting out a paper pirate hat so we could pretend we were pirates, and then this prissy little princess -" Emma jerked her thumb towards Regina, who glared at her. "came over and decided that she wanted the scissors."

"I asked nicely!" Regina interjected indignantly. "You said that a stupid little princess like me shouldn't have a weapon!"

Emma's lips drew back in a feral snarl, a strange expression to see on such a young, innocent looking girl.

"I didn't say that! You just grabbed the scissors out of my hands!"

Regina's eyes flashed in what looked like a watered down imitation of her mother, Dr. Cora Mills.

"No! And then you grabbed my wrist! It was self defense!"

"You punched me in the face! That's not duf-ens!" Emma argued.

The two children were practically out of their seats, their cherubic faces contorted into the ugliest of sneers and scowls. But before anything else could happen, Mary Margaret pushed them firmly away from one another and back into their seats. Emma plopped down with an irritated growl, slouching down in her seat and effectively wrinkling the bloody green tee shirt she had on.

"Regina, I expected more from you," the elementary teacher said, shaking her head slightly in disappointment. Regina did nothing but stick out her lower lip. The elementary teacher couldn't make her feel anything. She refused to be guilty because Mary Margaret wanted her to be. However, when the woman's gaze turned to Emma, it wasn't that of a disappointed teacher, but of a very disappointed mother.

"Emma, I thought I had raised you better than this."

Emma looked down slightly, and Regina could see the girl's pale skin, spotted with dark specks of drying blood, flush an embarrassed pink color. Regina, despite her immense loathing and hatred of Emma Swan, couldn't help the pang of sympathy that registered within her; she knew the look of a child who failed to meet the expectations of her parents far too well, on account of the many mirrors in her home.

Mary Margaret sighed.

"It's been a whole year since you two met. I thought that you would have gotten past kindergarten fights now, now that you are first graders. Apparently not."

Emma and Regina both turned to look at each other, made eye contact for one second - hard, angry brown against blazing green, before both little girls turned away with an annoyed huff. Mary Margaret looked from one to the other and her jaw tightened. She pushed herself off of her desk, out of the leaning position she had been in, and started going through a drawer. Regina watched Mary Margaret with a tinge of confusion. What was the teacher doing? Regina was a first grader now, that meant NOBODY but her mother and daddy could boss her around when school was over, and with a glance to the clock, Regina confirmed that it was indeed one minute past three, one minute into freedom.

Mary Margaret pointed to the green painted door that presumably led into an office, brandishing a few papers in one clenched fist.

"You two are going to go in there now while everyone else gets on the bus to go home, and you will do this assignment for an hour. And then Regina, I've already called your mother, she will pick you up after that hour and then punish you as she sees fit. Emma, I will take you home after the hour is up, and you will be grounded."

Emma groaned.

"For how long?"

Mary Margaret shrugged.

"Indefinitely."

Emma groaned even louder. Regina, however, had broken out in a cold sweat. Her mother. Her mother knew she had gotten in a fight. The very thought made Regina blanch to the color of the printer paper she had been drawing on earlier in the day. Regina knew she was going to be punished, and the thought absolutely terrified her. What would her mother do this time? If Miss Blanchard, the almost sickly sweet picture of benevolence, was grounding her own child _indefinitely, _Cora's punishment would be catastrophic. Regina swallowed hard.

"Go, off with you two. Do your work and think about what you've done," Mary Margaret dismissed, handing the papers to Regina - Emma's expression was looking rather mutinous, and Regina could understand why the teacher would rather give the fragile assignments to someone less volatile.

Emma stomped, dragging her heavy sneakered feet along the ground as she reluctantly made her way towards the office. Regina followed after, sniffling slightly as her jaw smarted from where Emma had slapped her.

~O~

"I don't wanna do this," Emma announced as soon as the door had swung closed and Regina had handed Emma her paper. "I don't want to do this stupid work."

Regina shrugged.

"Neither do I. But we have to." Regina kept her tone cold and even, like her mother did when dealing with her own enemy, that creepy doctor who walked with a cane and always looked at Regina kind of funny like he knew something that she didn't.

Emma looked consideringly at Regina, and then smiled broadly.

"No, we don't."

Regina looked confusedly at the blonde. It was work, given out by the teacher. Of course they had to do it, what was Emma even thinking? Was she stupid or something? Regina didn't let the sudden tiny pique of amusement show on her face as she mentally answered her own question. Of course Emma was stupid. Regina knew that.

"Yes we do," Regina protested. "Or we'll get in trouble."

Emma plopped down in the coveted wheelie chair that only teachers were allowed to use.

"We don't have to. YOU do," she elaborated. Regina didn't quite understand at first. Why on earth would only Regina have to do it, and not Emma? She had heard Mary Margaret's instructions, she had said for the both of them to do it, and - it dawned on her. Emma was going to _make _Regina do both sheets of work.

This would NOT do.

Regina set her paper down on one side of the desk, the side where children usually stood when being reprimanded by the teacher. Then she slammed the other sheet onto the teacher side of the desk. Emma looked at her with faint interest, kicking her feet and making the wheelie chair twist a little.

"Whatcha doing?" she queried, tilting her head. Regina looked over at her enemy with squinty eyes, the kind of squinty eyes that Regina's mother sometimes looked at her with. However, instead of automatically gaining the small, scared expression that Regina knew should appear as a result of the squinty eyes, Emma just squinted right back at her.

"You look like a rat or something when you do that, 'Gina," Emma drawled, elongating the nickname so as to antagonize the other first grader. True to form, Regina gritted her teeth. She _really _hated that nickname, or any real form of nicknames. Mother didn't like them, and Daddy always called her 'princess', which seemed more like a title than a nickname. Regina huffed and flounced into the chair on her side of the neatly organized teacher's desk and snagged a pencil off of the surface.

"I'm doing my work," Regina announced. "Not yours." To make her point, she dramatically etched her name into the top of the page. R-E-G-I-N-A M-I-L-L-S. She could feel Emma's eyes watching her like they were the laser beams from the shows she sometimes saw Daddy watching.

"I could make you do my work. You punched me, s'only fair," Emma commented, kicking her feet up onto the desk and splattering grass and pebbles and dirt all over. Regina brushed off the mud with a dirty glare.

"You can't make me do anything," Regina retorted. "Your mom's the teacher, but that doesn't mean you're the teacher. Only Mother and Daddy and Miss Blanchard can make me do things."

With that, Regina directed her attention to the first question: _How many people are in your family?_

Emma was silent for a minute as Regina penciled in her answer ("2 people, Mother and Daddy."), and then broke the silence once more.

"Why're you doing work? You know my mom doesn't ever check homework or nothing."

Regina sighed dramatically and looked up exasperatedly.

"Because I wanna grow up and be the greatest, and you can't be the greatest if you're stupid."

Regina turned back to her page. The second question gave her pause: _Who is your favorite family member? _Regina felt guilty that her father had automatically popped into her head, because she knew her mother would have preferred it be her. Would Mother see it? Would Daddy?

Regina bit her little lip for a moment, and then scribbled in her answer as fast as she could, with careless first grader handwriting ("My mother is my faveret family member. She's like a queen.") _An evil one,_ the little brunette added in her head, and then kicked herself - that was no such way to talk about her mother, even in her own mind.

In the second between questions, Regina didn't hear the silence she had been expecting, the lack of movement or effort from the blonde, who had been watching her with what felt like thoughtful interest - Regina didn't dare look up and discover; looking directly at the blonde in cold blood disconcerted Regina, made her want to look away. Although the first grader always made a point to look even more intensely when the two made eye contact ("Offense is always the best defense, Regina," that was what her mother always told her after she came home from work.), Regina preferred to avoid it as much as possible.

She heard the telltale sounds of another pencil scratching. Regina froze, her eyes locked on question three: _What is your favorite color? _She felt a tap on her shoulder. _  
_

"Regina? How do you spell 'stepmother'?"

~O~

Mary Margaret checked her watch. Then she checked the clock. Then she looked over towards the closed office door. The classroom had been empty for one whole hour. She had been sitting in the classroom for the entire hour, listening and watching for any signs of the violence that, in the past year that they had known each other, had become the Emma-and-Regina signature. But there had been nothing. After a minute had gone by, Mary Margaret got to her feet, chewing on her lip. Carefully, as if she were defusing a bomb, she cracked the door open a hair's width. Her eyes widened.

The two girls sat side by side, golden ringlets beside coal curls, papers filled with first grader writing even visible from a distance. And they were both laughing. Laughing.

"Ooh, write that down, that's funny!" Emma said, grinning. Regina promptly scribbled something onto the paper, narrating as she wrote.

"My favorite fruit is an apple, but not poison ones because I don't wanna be kissed." Regina wrinkled her nose. "Boys are icky."

Emma nodded in agreement. "They have cooties."

Mary Margaret couldn't help a little giggle of joy. After one whole year of being complete and utter rivals, and butting heads every five seconds, the two were finally getting along! Who would have guessed that a fight over scissors and an after school detention would bear such fruit?

"Miss Blanchard, what, may I ask, are you doing?"

Mary Margaret stiffened at the sound of the icy-silk voice, and both of the little girls looked up with wide eyes as well at the voice.

"Hello, Doctor Mills," Mary Margaret sighed. "I was just checking on the girls to see how they were doing, and-"

Cora didn't even bother to let the teacher finish her sentence.

"Regina, come at once," she ordered. Moments later the small brunette child pushed the door open, looked up at Mary Margaret with slight confusion, and approached her mother. Cora looked down at her disheveled, bruised daughter with open disdain. Regina's cheeks flared red under her mother's frigid gaze.

"We're going home now," the doctor said shortly, brushing invisible dust off of her sleek black tailored suit. Both turned to go without a single word more to Mary Margaret. The pair vanished into the hallway. A moment later, Emma burst out of the office like a blonde-and-green-and-blood cannon, hurtling past her mother and into the empty school hallway.

"Regina, wait...!" she called. Regina automatically stopped and turned just as she was about to push open the school exit door, her face startled. Cora glanced back as well to see why Regina had stopped moving, and her expectant gaze became snobbish as it settled on Emma.

"Regina, you are not to associate with her," Emma could hear Regina's mother whisper. "Isn't she the one who made you look ugly today, and last year?"

Regina looked from Emma, to her mother, chewing on her lip.

"Yes," the little brunette whispered back. Cora's lips quirked up ever so slightly. Emma, in her frozen position staring, noted that she had seen Regina use this smile many times, when she had thought she'd won. She decided that this was clearly where Regina had learned it from.

"And you don't want to ever look ugly like you do now, right, dear? You're such a lovely girl, you don't need people like her taking that away from you."

Regina seemed to take this into deep consideration. "I want to be like you, Mother," she answered softly. Cora put her hand on her daughter's shoulder.

"I know, dear, and someday you will be. Some day you'll be much more. Now, dismiss her and let's go. Your father is waiting at home for you."

Regina turned to Emma, and Emma could see her enemy-friend struggling to bring that cold expression to her own warm features.

"Go back to your mother, Miss Swan," Cora announced, lifting her chin. The mother looked to her daughter expectantly. Regina imitated her mother perfectly, lifting her chin as well in that just-so way.

"Go away, Emma."

And with that, the two left the school, leaving one very confused Emma Swan.

"So are we back to being enemies now, Gina?" Emma said just as the door swung closed. There was no response, as expected.

* * *

_Sorry for the delay with this chapter. A little thing called 'failing biology' happened and I had to fix that. Reviews would be very much appreciated; I could use a little pixie dust now._

_Also, can we talk about how Season 3 is already shaping up to be fantastic? Episode 3x02 is tonight! Prayer circle that Present-Day-Regina doesn't get abused too badly._


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